http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/ Engadget Comments for Volkswagen Beetle converted to run on methane headed for the UK streets http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 3:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 4:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 4:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
Anybody seen the film...Thunderpants?]]>Aug 5th 2010 4:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
I salute Robin Williams for being a futurist... "F**k green, go Brown!"]]>Aug 6th 2010 3:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
How do I refill the thank..... *scared*]]>Aug 5th 2010 1:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/hahaha, lets go to gizmodo right now!


/s]]>Aug 5th 2010 1:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
Not sure who came up with it, but that's the actual nickname.]]>Aug 5th 2010 2:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
Actually if the methane is produced from human waste this would be carbon neutral, since humans got the carbon from plants, or from animals that ate plants, that absorbed the carbon from the atmosphere in the first place.]]>Aug 5th 2010 2:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
It's sustainable in the way that it doesn't reintroduce carbon from fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Studies here in Sweden have shown that using fuels based on rotting livestock excrement and slaughterhouse waste can reduce emissions by as much as 146%.

And no, that's not a typo.

Instead of expending energy pumping up fossil fuels, processing it, transporting it across the globe and burning it to reintroduce the carbon, nitrogen and sulphur into the atmosphere we're relying on waste that's not only part of the current biocycle, meaning it will be reabsorbed by the plants that make up fodder for the livestock, but also removing the methane resulting from natural rotting of said material from the atmosphere as well.

It's a net win in greenhouse reductions on multiple levels.

Fuels such as biogas and synthetic diesel (which can made from many things, locally there's a plant processing lumber waste into diesel) is probably the best solution for sustainable personal or professional transport in the immediate future.

Electrical is a nice, and niche, experiment but unfortunately we still have to produce the electricity somehow and there's currently no battery technology that doesn't rely on rare earth minerals which are in very short supply.]]>Aug 5th 2010 4:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 4:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
You don't seem aware that regardless of how the energy for EVs is produced, they make more *efficient* use of that energy and thus use *less*. An electric motor is 80% efficient versus 20-35% for an ICE, and the turbine at the local coal power plant averages 60% efficient, with 6.5% power lost, on average, in transmission. The result? Even if you charge purely from coal (which is impossible as there's no state where 100% of the power is produced by coal fired powerplants) EVs use significantly less of that power and in turn contribute less in the way of ghg emissions. Google "MIT well to wheel analysis of EVs".]]>Aug 5th 2010 6:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
You don't seem to understand what I wrote.

Electrical vehicles have their place (the 'mice and niche' part) but they can't replace contemporary combustion engines at this time. Nor does their construction and choice of fuel make them more 'green'.

You're quite right that not all electricity is produced from fossil fuels but while that's true you're ignoring the significant energy losses imposed by transporting and storing electrical energy away from the production site. That, and that coal plants aren't actually any more efficient than modern vehicles while releasing more greenhouse gases per W of energy produced.

Natural gas plants are approaching that level of efficiency but that doesn't hold true for coal, or even nuclear for that matter.

I'm not vehemently opposed to electrical vehicles by any means but when I say that it's a 'nice and niche experiment' I mean just that.]]>Aug 6th 2010 12:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/
In a few years every car will start smelling like a cattle-hauler. I predict the rear-view air freshener manufacturers are doing a happy dance right about now...

]]>Aug 5th 2010 1:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Yes. When people think of the odor of methane as it occurs naturally, they are smelling the sulpher compounds that commonly accompany natural methane. ]]>Aug 5th 2010 5:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 1:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/"We've been over this a thousand times - it's the car!"
"...we're in the kitchen"]]>Aug 5th 2010 2:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 2:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 3:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 4:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 4:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 5:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 5:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 5:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 9:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 11:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 5th 2010 11:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/05/volkswagen-beetle-converted-to-run-on-methane-headed-for-the-uk/Aug 6th 2010 2:35AM